Saturday, February 20, 2010

Felix & Pedro

Let me introduce them: they live on my kitchen counter.Pedro is my "pet" a.k.a. sourdough starter, a live culture of bacteria and yeast, and I feed him every day with water and flour (but when we go on vacation, I store Pedro in the frig -- unlike pets).

Every weekend, I combine 1 cup of Pedro with 1/2 cup from the other jar, which I've name Felix (plus some oil and an egg). Then I fry up a batch of Sourjacks, or Sourdough pancakes. They are about as authentic Alaskan as you can get, and absolutely delicious! Exact recipe can be found here.

Why did I name them Pedro and Felix?"Sourdough" is a nickname for old-timer Alaskans (especially miners), because in the Gold Rush days, the only way to get bread or pancake to rise without the use of Baker's yeast or eggs was, of course, by using a sourdough starter.

The "Sourdough" miner who first discovered gold in Fairbanks (which was our first Alaskan home, and where I first started regularly baking our daily bread) was an Italian immigrant named Felix Pedro --more about him and Fairbanks Gold Rush history here.

About the crazy Kraut who writes this blog:

I call Alaska home, but am originally from Germany. I'm incredibly lucky to have a job as a naturalist, teaching and hiking the great outdoors. My family:
The Prof (my husband);
Eldest (flown the coop);
Wolfman (teenage son);
Liesl (youngest pixie).